Several local residents and outside agitators descended on a South SLO County Sanitation District meeting to support Arroyo Grande’s beleaguered mayor, Jim Hill, condemn everyone who doesn’t support him, and personally attack the law firm investigating him. Oh, the hypocrisy is stunning!

They published an article that resulted in a defamation lawsuit and a $1.1 million judgment against them, but criticize them for their journalistic misconduct — and get slapped with a civil harassment order request. Criticize them for making unsubstantiated allegations — and get inundated with unsubstantiated accusations of “violent” stalking, harassment and threats.

There are common threads between Alex Jones, Karen Velie and Kevin P. Rice: they’re mentally unfit, and many conservatives support them wholeheartedly, despite overwhelming evidence that they’re unfit and their content is unfit to print.

Anonymity has been used as a tool in productive ways, from providing a voice for the voiceless to spurring regime change in countries with corrupt, authoritarian governments. Yet time and time again, we’ve seen anonymity being weaponized to foster limitless hostility that often ventures into criminal conduct. But when certain anonymous become part of the news, it’s hard to argue that they should be protected from being identified.